Peter Haining interview – long chat with the late Peter Haining about his trail-blazing days at the New English Library fiction factory. Discusses authors such as Jim Moffatt, Terry Harknett and Chris Priest, and books such as Skinhead, Chopper and Edge.

Right. Stuff in your strongest stomach because the eagerly awaited ‘When Animals Attack!’ special is finally upon us, 14 glorious glossy A4 sides devoted to the ‘Nasty’ creature feature novels that proliferated in the wake of James Herbert’s sex, gore and social commentary smash The Rats. As with the rest of the magazine, the article is offset with a plethora of cover reproductions treasury from the golden age. Even if you’ve never sampled the delights of Eat Them Alive, The Maggots, Worms, Night Killers or the mighty Crabs On The Rampage, you’ll qualify for the dreaded ‘overnight expert’ status once you’ve stomped and squelched your way through Justin’s crash course.

Following on from the Robert Lory scoop in the previous issue, an interview with Robert ‘Big Bob’ Tralins, a new name on me but responsible for a respectable stream of sexploitation and warped horrors for Popular, Belmont, Paperback Library and similar US cheapo publishers through the ‘swinging’ ‘sixties and ‘seventies. Sword & Sorcery he-men and she-women are well catered for with a Rivals Of Conan round-up and this issue also sees the conclusion of Legion Of The Damned, an exhaustive meditation on the joys of the pleasant, long-lived escapist Nazi war pulp craze. Finally, a welcome new feature is the self-explanatory Fanatical Thoughts – News, Updates, Letters, Gossip where various reprobates get to air their views.

For this reader, the best and most frustrating thing about Paperback Fanatic is that just when I think I can finally put a lid on all the genres I need to watch for when creepy crawling the junk-shops, Mr. Marriott will write something utterly intriguing about some old pile of rubbish or other and I’ll be all ‘Hmmm, but can I really live without Captive Of Gor‘?

* Perhaps I should attempt to explain the numbering system as it can get confusing. Issue 1 was Pulpmania!, issue 2 was Paperback Dungeon hence what I’ve always referred to as Paperback Fanatic #1 was actually #3.

I’m glad I’ve cleared that up to everybody’s complete satisfaction ….

Paperback Fanatic # 4

Paperback Fanatic #2 (Sept. 2007)

What did we do before Paperback Fanatic? If it only seems a couple of weeks since we were raving over the first issue, that’s because it is, so when a mysterious bundle squelched through my letterbox on Monday the last thing I was expecting it to contain was a proof of number 2!

It’s not as if I’m ever going to struggle to promote it to you people, but the eagle-eyed will have noticed that the cover features selected works from Robert Lory – and Justin has landed one of his biggest scoops ever! If you recall the interview-cum-career retrospective with Michel Parry way back in Pulp Mania, imagine the same treatment afforded to Mr. Lory …

To blithely trot out “worth the entry price for this alone” is true but also pays a huge disservice to the rest of the magazine. Justin has hit on a winning formula with his genre-hopping approach and number 3 showcases the artwork of Jan Parker and Bruce Pennington, the first in a two part investigation into the ‘German’ war fiction of Sven Hassel, ‘Leo Kessler’ and their acolytes, plus the usual feast of cover scans.

The third issue of the legendary Justin Cultprint’s excellent The Paperback Fanatic (“The British magazine for collectors of pulp fiction”) is available now and if you enjoy browsing ‘seventies book covers this is certainly the magazine for you! The highlight for me is the catalogue of Sphere’s ‘seventies horror titles and there are also features on tacky kung-fu novels, the many faces of Paul Tabori and a piece on violent cops ‘The Special Squad’.